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The news of the Slumdogwins began trickling in as I got ready to leave for work on Monday. My heart did Danny Boyle like scissor jumps when I heard that Rahman and Pookuttyhad won.

The Indian media covered the Oscars through the day and, as expected, TV ratings went through the roof.

Of course, for every Jai Ho, there seem to be a hundred doubts, accusations and cribs. I felt some of these were out of place and uncalled . So I thought that I will put down some of the complaints and put in my two bits:

"Would it have got the same recognition if an Indian made the film?" No, it wouldn't because the Oscars are awards for American/ English cinema. Our cinema is not American. Barring KaranJohar perhaps."This is not Rahman's best work and he has done better?" Same logic. He hasn't composed for American/ British so was not eligible for his 'better' pieces. And what's wrong if he didn't win it for his best performance. The fact that he won for what…

I am about to leave for home. And am dreading this. The traffic in the evening has been insane of late. The struggle to cover each square feet is epic. It takes me more than an hour to cover a meagre ten kilometers or so. And this is a luxury at Mumbai where people cover much longer distances to come to work.

My chauffeur has just left me. I have terrible luck with drivers in any case. And yes in Sumdog's India we do get help like maids and drivers. I have left myself to the mercy of cabbies now because I don't even want to think of driving back myself. It needs a much stronger man than me. Even marriage hasn't prepared me for the infinite patience required for this.

I can't get over the 'pink chaddi protest' on Facebook. In the unlikely even that you haven't heard about it then it is a protest movement where women are sending pink panties on Valentines to the Mr Muthalik and his band of forty brave men who beat up 4 women in a pub for....well for being in a pub.

Who said we don't have a sense of humour? Mr M won't know what hit him. I hope some people are considerate enough to send him thongs. He and his leather pant boys can use them as sling shots. I wonder whether road side shops post 14th February will see a flurry of red panties. After all that's what happens to clothes one gives for flood relief and other government run relief camps.

Just one question to the folks who organised this. Why pink chaddis? I thought red was the colour of Valentines. At least that's what the window display at the lingerie shops at Hill Road, Bandra seem to be screaming out.

I have always given a lot of importance to my barber. The reason's simple. I don't have too much hair. Folks used to point out how thin (patla) it was right from my college days.

I would try to avoid this by standing tall but there would be vulnerable moments when I would be sitting somewhere only to hear some girl squeal, "eeks you are going to become bald soon".

I have tried various places to cut my hair. From the basic salons of Kolkata to the basic ones near Bandra station and the legendary Air Cool at Churchgate, Mumbai. As the years progressed there was less hair to play around with and there was slightly more money in hand. So I have tried a couple of trendier places here in the hope of getting a 'different look'. With barely visible results. Still I give a lot of thought to where to cut my hair.

I also remember my father once explaining to me that the original surgeons in England were barbers. He said that this was the reason why surgeons should technic…

We have made this a little birthday ritual over the past yeas and I must thank Kainaz for being so sporting. I think my love for Goa has rubbed off on her too.

We will be at Waters. We were really looking forward to staying here. The owner, Samir, has been kind enough to offer to upgrade us to two suites. I am quite looking forward to it.

I have written extensively about Goa in my food blog. Almost seems like there is nothing left to write. This year's different though. As they say in Hindi 'hum do sai char ho gaye' (we have become four from two). No, not kids as the saying refers to.

My mom and brother are coming with us. My mom has wanted to go to Goa for a long time. So we used this as a bait to get her over to come to Bombay. Something tells me that our usual beach bumming, desperate eating and sundowners won't be the flavour of this holiday.

My brother's birthday is a day before mine. This is the first time the three of us will be toget…

A series of events sparked off the chain of thoughts leading to this post.

It first begun when I was watching a Ray film, Shakha Prashakha. The film is about an elderly gentleman who has a heart attack and the days that fellow when his family comes to visit him. His children were not the evil offspring of the movie Baghbaan. But the film did show their attempts to balance their professional lives and personal irritations with their concern over their father.

Then we saw instances in our own family when my grandfather was hospitalised at Calcutta and we saw the nervousness in the my grandmom's voice even after he returned home. Her children were there for them in different degrees but the reality was they had their own lives and own families.

Then during a meeting a client came up with the hypothesis that Indian men start thinking in terms of 'family' only when they have kids. Wives, parents were often less involving and not strictly seen as famlily according to this gentlema…

About Me

Kalyan Karmakar began
blogging in 2007 when his wife, who was tired of listening to him talk about
food all the time, opened a blog for him.

She named his blog www.finelychopped.net. The blog recently won the award for the best general food blog category in the FBAI 2017 Awards,

He has recently published his book, The Travelling Belly, which has been published by Hachette India. It is a food travelogue based on his travels across India :

Kalyan started his career as a market researcher and then moved into food writing. He is a cloumnist at the Indian Express, NDTV Foods and Femina. His writings can be found at the Mumbai Mirror, BBC Good Food India, The India Food Network and Scoopwhoop. He is a special guest on Mumbai on Demand on 94.3 Radio One FM and talks every Wednesday between 1 to 2 pm on Food trends.

His YouTube channel is called: Kalyan Karmakar and he is the co-wner of the channe: The Finely Chopped.
He conducts personalised food walks in Mumbai where he introduces the city to
participants through the dishes of his favourite food haunts.

To unwind he heads to the kitchen where he loves to play with ingredients and
his mantra is hassle-free, gut feel-based cooking.

Kalyan is a Bengali who now lives in Mumbai with his wife, who is a Parsi from
Mumbai. He moved in here close to two decades back from Kolkata after spending
his early years in Iran and the UK.

When asked what she feels about her introducing him to blogging, Kalyan’s wife
Kainaz says "I have forgotten the taste of hot food thanks to his
photographing everything on the table before we can eat it".